Why Avon Is One Of The Most Sought-After Suburbs In Connecticut

Feed call at annual training at the headquarters of the First Company Governor's Horse Guards in Avon. (Brad Horrigan / Hartford Courant File Photo)

Don't be surprised if one day soon you walk into the First Company Governor's Horse Guard barn in Avon and find a "For Rent" sign on one of the horse stalls.

A bill working its way through the state legislature proposes to allow 56 vacant stalls at the state military Horse Guard barns in Avon and Newtown to be offered for lease. The bill, which has already been approved by the House Veterans Affairs Committee, would set the monthly rent at $350 per stall.

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The First Company Governor's Horse Guard, a state military unit, took up residence in Avon in 1954. It's the oldest military cavalry unit still in service in the United States. With stalls at the Guard's Arch Road barn newly available to the public, equestrians in Avon and surrounding Farmington Valley towns will have a new option for boarding their steeds, a small upside of the state's budget deficit.

The new horse-boarding option is just another trapping of this well-heeled suburb of Hartford, where recreational opportunities abound alongside leafy neighborhoods, excellent schools, high-quality medical care, boutiques, restaurants, specialty stores and nearly every service imaginable.

At Avon Village Marketplace on East Main Street, a.k.a. Route 44, one can find: antiques, clothing, banking, more wine and spirits, carpets, catering, hair and nail salons, a psychic, dog grooming, needlecraft, jewelry, financial planning and resume services.

At nearby 51 East Main, you'll find yogurt, insurance, soaps and candles, jewelry, gifts, lacrosse gear, bagels, stationery, a tailor, fitness clothing and tanning, to name a few. There are some 50 eateries in town from which to select for a meal or snack. The cuisine choices include: American, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mediterranean, Mexican, and Thai, with venues including full restaurants, delicatessens, sandwich and coffee shops and bakeries.

The sprawl has served Avon well, more or less, but now a developer, The Carpionato Group, is proposing to build a town center of retail shops and housing around an 11-acre, "new Village Green" in hopes of giving the community at least the feel of a "classic New England town." The proposal would incorporate the Farmington Valley Green Way Bike Trail and the existing town office brownstones as elements that should add to the project's appeal.

Avon became the state's 130th municipality in 1830, formed from the parish of Northington, a farming community that was once a section of Farmington. At the time, the new town's industrial and commercial future was looking bright, with two major thoroughfares of trade and commerce — the Hartford-Albany Turnpike and the Farmington Canal — passing right through it. But the canal's benefits proved to be short-lived and it shut down within 20 years as the faster more efficient railroads expanded across the state and nation.

Avon's population remained fairly subdued through the 18th and early 19th centuries. Its population in 1830 was just 1,025. A century later, in 1940, it had reached 2,258. Yet it doubled again in just 20 years hitting 5,273 by 1960, thanks in large part to the automobile. By 2000 it had tripled to 15,832 and, according to the state health department, reached 18,421 by July 1, 2014.

Avon is home to good schools, public and private, notably Avon Old Farms School a private college preparatory institution for boys. The affluence of Avon and surrounding communities has attracted the attention of two major health care networks, Hartford HealthCare and St. Francis Care, that have established satellite facilities in town. The University of Connecticut Medical Center is less than 10 miles away in Farmington.

Among the more unique features of Avon is its town office complex, housed in explosion-resistant buildings that once housed the Climax Fuse Co. Located along Route 44, the low-slung buildings built of thick brownstone were designed after the company suffered a catastrophic workplace explosion in 1905 that killed 15 workers, many of them immigrants including women and teenagers. The buildings are designed to channel the force of an explosion vertically through the roof, although the only fireworks in the building now are probably limited to political back-and-forth.

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Nineteenth century manufacturing was long ago replaced by the service industry and now most residents commute to city centers, such as Hartford, for their jobs. But they, and many of their Connecticut neighbors, return to Avon to play, with ample opportunities for outdoor recreation.

Avon lies in the path of Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, a paved, 84-mile, vehicle-free greenway that, when finished, will connect New Haven on Long Island Sound and Northampton, Mass., in the Connecticut River valley. For hardier hikers, there's the Metacomet Trail that traverses portions of a trap rock ridgeline that extends from New Haven and Branford on the sound north through Connecticut and western Massachusetts, all the way to the border with Vermont and New Hampshire.

In addition to the regional trail systems, residents have plenty of other opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors. The town has hundreds of acres of open space and athletic facilities. There's Alsop Meadows, 56.2 acres with lacrosse fields and access to the Farmington River; Buckingham Road Recreation Area,17.7 acres; Countryside Park, 17.5 acres; Fisher Farm, 315.2 acres; Found Land, 124 acres (identified during tax mapping in the 1950s); Hazen Park, 36 acres; Huckleberry Hill Recreation Area, 280 acres; Sperry Park, 9.4 acres; and Sycamore Hills Recreation Area, 33 acres that includes a pavilion, tennis and basketball and a pool. Four and a half miles of the 40-mile Farmington Valley Greenway Trail constructed along the abandoned Boston and Maine rail line lie within the town.

For those seeking inspiration through art, there's the Farmington Valley Arts Center, a not-for-profit organization that since 1974 has sought to connect the community of Avon to its creative soul. If this doesn't grab you, there is always shopping, or hiking or biking.

Talcott Mountain has been a popular destination among hikers and backpackers for years because of views offered at the summit. It's also drawn the wealthy who have built homes primarily because of the view. Among them was Gilbert Heublein, a food magnate whose line of product imports included A1 steak sauce and Smirnoff vodka. The 165-foot tower he had built in 1914 as part of a summer home and retreat on Talcott Mountain is now part of Talcott Mountain State Park. The tower is in the town of Simsbury, close to the Avon town line.